As it was, the Eliza maid did have a panic attack and came back looking for Nanny Mary after two or so days (Hours) of Trixie practicing her letters (Mostly the letters of her name).

  "I am so sorry to disturb Mistress Mary." The Eliza maid said after knocking the door and walking into Trixie's room.

  They were playing with the toys right now!

  Didn't she know how important this part was?!?!?!?

  "You may refer to me as Nanny Mary or Miss Mary." Nanny Mary turned to look at the Eliza maid as she said that, "The only Mistress or person that you can refer to as such is the Lady of the house. Trixie."

  The Eliza maid was surprised at that and nodded, "My apologies." The Eliza maid said bowing to Trixie, "I just... wanted a clarification."

  Trixie nodded magnanimously at the Eliza maid.

  "So, what is it that you wanted to ask?" Nanny Mary asked, turning her attention away from the toys she had brought from her purse. That purse truly had everything in it!

  It was the first time that Trixie had seen toys that weren't made by the toybox!

  They were so dumb!

  They didn't even help with the play!

  "...I have noticed that the house has... fewer than adequate numbers of workers..." The Eliza maid started speaking with some trembling in her voice, "... I managed to hoodwink most of the maids that remained afterwards, but am I allowed to hire more workers?"

  "So long as you can vouch for them, you have the authority to hire any new employee." The Nanny Mary said nodding sagely, almost like Trixie, "Did you speak with Lord White yet?"

  Oh right, she was going to speak to Papa!

  "I have, yes," The Eliza maid answered with another nod, "Lord White said that as long as I didn't bother Lady Trixie, I could do whatever I wanted..."

  "That does sound like Lord White," Nanny Mary smiled as she sighed, "Did he say anything else?"

  "That I was to look for you Miss Mary." The Eliza Maid turned to look at Trixie, then back to Nanny Mary. "Lord White said that you had the ultimate authority on new hires."

  "... Of course he said that," Nanny Mary shook her head, "Talk with the Knights of White and inform them of the influx of new employees."

  "For now we are having each new maid working with a few Knights as their subordinates..." The Eliza maid seemed weirded as she said that, "If you had told me that I would order a maid to command a Knight to clean a mansion... I would laugh and told you to stop drinking beer."

  Beer?

  The no-no drink!

  Papa hated that no-no drink! He said that it was for the weak and the dumb-dumbs! The dumb-dumbs more dumb than Trixie!

  "Take care and make sure to only order those Knights that are approved by Sebastian." Nanny Mary turned a stern look to the Eliza maid. "They should be more amenable to listening, compared to the more standard Knights."

  Of course, they would listen, all of Trixie's toys were good toys and helped any member of the white family! That's what a polite toy would do!

  Well, at least Trixie's toys, she knew that Papa was recruiting more Knights, it was the normal thing to do after all. Papa needed loyal followers! Like a normal King would!

  He couldn't get by with only Trixie's toys!

  Trixie would help Papa and anyone that wanted to be a Knight too! She would draw the bestest of them squiggles ever seen on this part of the park!

  "...Why is Lady Trixie nodding?" The Eliza maid asked in a hushed tone.

  Rude, Trixie was literally here, she could hear them! And if she couldn't the ToyBox would tell Trixie the gossip!

  "She is nodding to say that she also thinks that the approved Knights would be the best to approach with these orders." Nanny Mary translated Trixie's nod as what Trixie intended for them to become.

  Yes, totally. Trixie was not lying! She meant that!

  "Of course, I know the terror that a Knight can bring upon us normal humans..." The Eliza maid shuddered as she spoke.

  Terror?

  But Trixie was a normal person and she got along with the Knights just fine, even those that weren't her toys! They all were polite and well-behaved!

  "... That...?" The Eliza maid said in a small voice again.

  "Trixie, you need to be mindful, most of the knights employed to the White Family are ones who serve you. So that is why they don't mind what you say or do." Nanny Mary said to Trixie as she kneeled in front of Trixie, "But those that don't work for your family are different, they are proud of the power that they acquired..."

  "They are quite the rude and trashy people." The Eliza maid spat her anger as if it was the most obvious thing.

  Trixie almost could taste the hatred!

  "Some are angry with the world as they try to move from a Knight into a Mage and can't do it too." Nanny Mary said as she shook her head from side to side. "So they are more... unstable."

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  "But you said that there isn't a difference in the first circles, right?" Trixie asked confused. "Wouldn't that mean that so long as they don't make a second circle, they are basically the same?"

  "There is no way that is right." The Eliza maid said confused, "... is it?"

  "That is correct, a first circle mage and a first circle knight are basically the same." Nanny Mary said, confirming the suspicion of the Eliza maid, "The difference is from the second circle forward."

  "... I find that..." The Eliza maid seemed confused, "... difficult to believe, I have seen what a third circle knight can do. At my former employer they hired one and he could split in two a tree trunk using his fingers."

  "Razor Edge!" Trixie said in a loud voice as she did the same motion that her Knight had done before.

  It was like woosh and fwooosh and bam!

  "Yes Trixie." Nanny Mary said nodding at Trixie's one to one rendition of the Knight of White from before, "That Knight probably used the Circle Spell - Razor Edge."

  "Then what is the issue? How come the second circle is different?" The Eliza maid asked, good, it was good that the Eliza maid asked since that meant that she would be the one to look like a dumb person.

  Trixie could benefit without working!

  "A first circle spell takes 100 mana units to form." Nanny Mary said, pulling a piece of paper and drawing a circle and writing the numbers 1, 0, and 0 there.

  Why that? Why one zero and zero instead of one hundred?

  "What would a second circle take then?" Nanny Mary asked to no one.

  Trixie knew that! If a first circle takes one hundred, then a second circle would take "Two hundred!"

  "...Surely it would require an adequate spell, preparation, ritualistic magic, and a good amount of preparation?" The Eliza maid asked instead of answering.

  Silly Eliza Maid, one needed to be sure of their answer!

  "That is correct, both of you." Nanny Mary said nodding at them both.

  But surely that couldn't be, there couldn't be two answers to one question! That was cheating! Nanny Mary was cheating!

  "To be precise, it takes two hundred mana units. An adequate spell to engrave or reinforce the circle, an adequate ritual, and that would imply adequate preparations." Nanny Mary started by nodding to Trixie and the Eliza maid, "But the important thing is this... It will require twice as many Mana units to form. Trixie was right. 200 Mana Units, but... that would need the Mage or Knight to start forming the new circle. And on average a first circle can generate 4 Mana units per hour, meaning that the next circle would take them..."

  "Very long!" Trixie answered first, this time she would get it right!

  "...Fifty hours?" The Eliza maid said half confused. "That doesn't sound that hard, a day of work isn't that bad."

  "Wrong," Nanny Mary said shaking her head at the Eliza maid, "And Trixie, you need to think in more precise numbers, the answer is correct since it takes long. But that doesn't give us a frame of time to think about."

  "Wait, at four mana per hour it would take fifty hours to generate the 200 mana units needed." The Eliza maid asked confused, "How is that wrong? It's basic math."

  "It is wrong because there are other factors involved." Nanny Maid said shaking her head, "The difficulty spike to create the next circle always spikes, it is twice as hard than the previous one, and this is an exponential growth."

  "...Exponential...then... the second circle is twice as hard... the third four times?" The Eliza maid had an expression of horror, "...The fourth would be eight times harder than the previous one then?"

  "Exactly," Nanny Mary said nodding sagely, "Meaning that if its twice as difficult, most take twice the time to make it, meaning one hundred hours on average."

  "...four days...and some." The Eliza maid said it in a time frame that was more understandable.

  "That is like forever!" Trixie said, horrified at the number, she couldn't imagine playing the same thing four days in a row! It would get boring!

  "You aren't quite getting it right." Nanny Mary shook her head yet again.

  "It's longer?!?!?" The Eliza maid asked in horror.

  "It is not longer, it is still four days." Nanny Mary said to the relief of the Eliza maid, "One hundred hours of continuous work, without rest lest the circle loses stability and the work takes longer."

  "...without rest?" The Eliza maid asked shuddering, "One hundred hours of continuous work?"

  "Yes," Nanny Mary nodded, "And that difficulty spikes with each new circle, more often than not. It means that the work is many times more complex. But with each circle we learn new tricks and so the time does not spiral out of control that much."

  "... So it is faster?" The Eliza maid asked, some lingering hope in her tone.

  "Oh goodness no." Nanny Mary laughed at that statement, "But the timeframe is usually roughly twice as long as the previous circle, that much is constant."

  "And that is why a knight only makes first-level circles!" Trixie understood it now! "Because it's easier and faster to just make a first-level circle than to make second circles!"

  "Surely that..." The Eliza maid was about to rebuke Trixie, but stopped herself short, "Is that why a knight is so much weaker than a mage?"

  "They are doing their best!" Trixie defended the pitiful weak toys... I mean, knights!

  "Yes," Nanny Mary didn't comment on that, "A Knight will always use only First Circle spells, the difficulty to make a new circle doesn't scale as hard with them because of this. But the quality of their mana is worse. Meaning they have less mana output than the mages."

  They still did their best!

  "Wait, that example is for mages right?" The Eliza maid suddenly spoke, "But a knight is making multiple first circles from what you are saying."

  Nanny Mary nodded at that. Trixie also nodded at that, the Eliza maid was learning well.

  "If a Knight is making a new first circle, doesn't that mean that the difficulty should be lower? Since they already know what they need to do." The Eliza maid ended up saying something silly.

  The world didn't work like that, Nanny Mary said that the difficulty spiked! So that meant that they would also have a hard time!

  "Precisely." Nanny Mary nodded, what? She was right?

  But the Eliza maid was dumb like Trixie!

  "A knight will have a lower mana regeneration than a normal Mage because they are only using first circles, and as thus their second first circle will generate less mana." Nanny Mary drew a new circle on the page, and this time she wrote another number there. "The new mana regeneration from this does not become twice as good, but instead they start regenerating six mana units. More often than not. That is two mana units less than a second mage circle user."

  That... didn't sound that impressive.

  "Their Mana Core can't store as much mana either. If a second circle mage can store two hundred mana units, a second circle knight can store roughly a hundred and fifty mana units." Nanny Mary drew some lines on the circle that represented the Knight. "This is speculative on average, of course, a more talented Knight can pull more mana into his core, and a less talented mage can pull less mana."

  Then as if to prove a point, Nanny Mary drew a smaller circle, like Trixie! It was small!

  "As this new circle will be less powerful, it takes less time to form." Nanny Mary wrote the numbers of the happy cat face (3) twice! "Roughly they take between thirty hours to forty hours, on average they take thirty three hours to make."

  ".... But if this tendency continues..." The Eliza maid said. "That would explain why there are more knights and why the mages are so much more powerful compared to them. They have more of these mana units you use as examples, and while a knight takes less time, they also have less power."

  Yes, just like Trixie said before!

  She did say that before right?

  Trixie was sure she said it before anyway! So it must be true!

  "So, what have we learned today?" Nanny Mary said turning to Trixie.

  "That Trixie's path to power will be filled with grueling work?!?!?!?" Trixie decided to pick the fancy words that people liked to use!

  Nanny Mary then turned to look at the Eliza maid, oh right, she was here. Wonder what she learned from this?

  "...That dedication is needed in case one wants to harvest the power of a Mage... or a Knight, if my math is right an esteemed Knight of the Sixth Circle like Lord White would have to take ten days to make his fifth circle." The Eliza maid still shuddered at the mention of Papa's ten-day vacations.

  "Assuming he made all as a Knight, then yes." Nanny Mary nodded at the mystical math numbers the Eliza maid was doing. "If he had attempted to make an actual second circle then he would need to take as long as a fourth mage circle, meaning he would need sixteen days to make a second circle."

  "...That... seems harder." The Eliza maid was confused, "Wouldn't he need the normal time?"

  "The laws of nature compensate for the shortcuts one attempts to take in its own way." Nanny Mary said while shrugging, "It is the way of the world to compensate, if not everyone would make only Knight Circles and then try to cheat their way on this way to make a set of normal circles."

  So then Trixie couldn't cheat? That was cheating!

  "...I see..." The Eliza maid said nodding, "So if I wanted to make a first circle...?"

  "You would need a teacher and or a means to coalesce the mana within you, a viable first circle spell or skill (Should you want to walk the path of the mage or the knight) and around fifty hours of dedication." Nanny Mary answered, "I would advise you to seek the Tower for an appropriate teacher... Or any mage organization if that is the path you want to follow. As for a knight organization..."

  Nanny Mary turned her attention towards the door, there stood the butler knight of white from before, the one that had brought Trixie to Papa before.

  Reginald was it?

  "Sebastian could probably give you the adequate training and you could try your luck as a Knight of White." Nanny Mary pointed to the Knight there.

  Well, Trixie almost got his name! There was practically no difference between Reginald and Sebastian as a name after all!

  "Our training is not... adequate for people with more fragile constitutions." The Knight of White said from the door, "We don't have a vast selection of spells either, so if she was to follow our training, she would be committing to the path of a Knight."

  "... For now I will settle with the permission to hire more maids." The Eliza maid said bowing to Nanny Mary, "Thank you very much for this lesson, I know that it was meant for Lady Trixie, but I benefited greatly from it nonetheless."

  Wait, The Eliza maid cheated!

  She cheated like how Trixie used to cheat to get free classes!

  Nice. Now they couldn't scold Trixie for doing that!

  Good job Eliza maid!